Saturday, 23 February 2013

Interview: Daniel and Justina from Roses and Boltshells

Inside, we all secretly (or openly) want to be a part of the
40k universe. Every Warhammer 40,000 player wants to be a space marine, an Ork,
or some other wild being from the forty-first millennium.

Well, two people are one step
closer to such. Twenty year old Justina Šniukštaitė, from Kaunas, Lithuania and
twenty five Daniel Høgh from, Ikast, Denmark, are the duo to see for
science-fiction costumes based on our favourite fictional universe. Running
under the name Roses and Boltshells, the couple have come up with many amazing sets of cosplay gear, and show no signs of running out of great ideas.

Daniel has his roots in the
wargaming scene, running his local gaming club. He is often fighting at the
forefront with his force of Imperial Fists.

When asked about her involvement in
our hobby, Justina said: “I would love to be a wargamer, though unfortunately
it’s not very popular around where I live. I am aware of wargaming club in the
capital, but I'm an university student; don’t think I can afford going to the
capital every other weekend just for wargaming”. Let’s hope that a good gaming
scene shows up soon.

For Daniel, the hobby of costume
making came natural. He said: “Making costumes was a natural development for
me, as I did a lot of LARPing and role-play. I collected stuff from movies and
didn’t want to pay an arm and a leg for replicas from my favourite
games/movies. In the beginning I made relatively small items but my eagerness
to make a full space marine suit was what sparked my ‘real’ costume making
hobby”.

His first costume was a Viking, which,
to Daniel’s admission, was of “poor accuracy, low budget cloth and insanely bad
finishes”. But everyone starts somewhere right?

Justina found the hobby recently,
only starting in 2009. But even with such a short time, she has managed to help
come up with some amazing costumes and suits. When asked about her first
costume, Justina said: “My first one came from back then favourite animation
series, called “Soul Eater”. If I had to compare it to my latest one, I have
changed skill-wise and visually throughout the years. My first one was barely a
few accessories and a fabric dress. Made in two weeks, while now my costumes
take months to make”.

Whilst the couple don’t plan to
sell you a full-sized suit of Power Armour any time soon, they are open to suggestions.
Justina said she sometimes sells unique items, so it’s worth keeping an eye out.

If you’re now itching to make
your own costume for an event, after seeing all the amazing works throughout
this article, Daniel has one great, simple piece of advice: “Never give up!
Never surrender! Never shun advice and make it your own!”. Justina goes on to
say it can is an expensive hobby, but if you are willing to put the time and
effort into it, it will all pay off.

For more pictures, and if you
want to ask for advice on making your own gear, check out their Facebook page.

To finish off, here
is my new profile picture, provided by Justina and Daniel. Turns out, their
artwork is just as amazing as their costume work.